Waterkloof, Last of the First Pinotage

Excellent balance, finely integrated tannins threading through from start to finish. Aroma of sour cherries, earthy and savoury notes. Luminescent dark cherry colour.

Professor Perold’s creation, the Pinotage grape, was propagated at Elsenburg College in 1935. In 1941 Myrtle Grove on the Schapenberg, South Africa was chosen for the first commercial plantings. Today only one block remains on the Schapenberg - The Last of The First. This is completely different in style to inland Pinotage. Elegant, perfumed, graceful - pinotage as it was originally intended? 

A Registered Single Vineyard
A small and singular parcel of mature, dryland farmed bush vine Pinotage measuring just 1.3 hectares and planted back in 1994. Now the last of its kind to be found on the maritime slopes of the Schapenberg, where the original commercial plantings of Pinotage took place. This rare little block sits just 6km from False Bay on a steep, elevated and cooler slope. Soils are stony and well-drained and therefore low-vigour. However, they are also blessed with a deep red/yellow clay sub-soil enabling good moisture retention, which is essential on the Schapenberg as this hillside has the lowest rainfall in Stellenbosch. Due to these low vigour soils, a lack of irrigation, incessant wind and the eschewal of synthetic fertilisers the berry-size and yield are tiny at just over 0.7 tons/ha or 4.2 hl/ha. 

Good things really do often come in small packages and the up-side here is healthy grapes with excellent balanced concentration.